Pro Potter Mori
by rakavolver
Summary: A different battle at the Department of Mysteries. A new problem arises and Harry has to fix his mistake. For Sirius. For the greater good. No pairings, character death.
1. Time Killing

Disclaimer: Don't own, so don't sue.

I'm a Canadian so if you see more U's than normal, that's to be expected.

**Pro Potter Mori**(1)**:** _Time Killing_

Another spell whizzed pass him. Harry tried to gather his thoughts but had to dive for cover as more spells flew by.

"Confringo!" He roared at the closest target. It hit an unsuspecting death eater in the thigh. The Death Eater lost his leg in a shower of blood and gore.

Hermione gave him a startled and confused look. Damn! He forgot that he had never taught that curse to the DA. Damn them for coming with him. Why couldn't they have stayed behind like he asked?

After his end of the year experiences, Harry had realized that he may very well have to fight solo again so he had trained himself to fight alone. He had worked himself to the bone late at night while the others slept, working on any curse that could be found in a meager school library. Although they weren't exactly powerful, they could keep a man down better than a simple stunner.

He had known that teaching the DA would cut into his own training time but he had realized that disappearing so often would have raised unwanted questions. Mentoring others would allow him to keep in practice without making Ron, and especially Hermione, suspicious. Keeping the age reasonable was supposed to ensure quick progress but the large group could only learn as quickly as the slowest member.

"Fucking Creevey's" he muttered.

The DA's glacial pace had really stifled his own development. Merlin's beard! They had only learned five spells all year. Expelliarmus, Protego, Expecto Patronum, Stupefy, and Reducto. Some should not even count as they had not exactly been new material. Harry had taken it upon himself to go above and beyond what the others learnt. If the others could catch up or just learn faster he would have more spells ready to teach. If not . . . well, he could just keep whatever he learned to himself.

Head low, Harry risked a glance around. Twelve Death Eaters now stood in the Department of Mysteries and his group was cowering behind the shelves of prophecies. Neville and Luna were doing great, better than he had expected. Ron was standing a ways away, not even bothering to find cover. It was a wonder he had not been hit yet, but it could have been because they were aiming at Harry's location. A look at Ginny disgusted him. Her back was turned to the enemy and she was looking at him pathetically for directions.

"Everyone - hey! Ron... RON! Listen to me. We've got to get away from here. They've got us pinned. Scatter on my signal."

"Harry, are you su..."

"NOW!"

Despite her initial protest, Hermione scattered with Ron, Luna, Neville, and Ginny like Harry asked.

Harry himself chose a different direction and raced towards the nearest door. Zigzagging behind whatever cover he could find, he fired off a series of minor but fast spells over his shoulder. A lucky tripping jinx hits one of his tails and the other pursuer plows into the first, sending them both to the floor.

'Twelve on six, I guess it makes sense to send two of them after each of us' Harry thought.

It bought him enough time to make it to the next room, but not before a cutter clipped his left shoulder and a splatter of blood now marked his passage through that aisle.

A quick colloportus let him look around and take stock of his new situation. He was alone, thankfully, and there seemed to be a theme to this room. Apparently, all rooms in this department had a theme. The numerous time-turners meant that this room obviously contained space-time related items. A quick healing charm mended the skin and stopped the bleeding before he ducked around a corner. Harry did not want his blood to give away his trail.

His foray into healing magic stopped after learning to heal shallow cuts and bruises. That was all he felt comfortable trying on himself after practicing on transfigured animals. His burn healing was spotty at best and he was not willing to burn himself just to attempt an unsure spell. His bone mending skills were not even worth mentioning.

Before he could to much more, the door burst open. Through the gap in the shelves, Harry saw the heads of Lucius Malfoy and a still-masked Death Eater.

"Come out Potter! We'll spare you if you give us the prophecy" Malfoy said. "You may even still have time to save your little mudbloods and blood traitors."

'A prophecy? So that's what it was' he thought. He hated them, the only one he heard before was ambiguous, confusing, and damn near useless.

Quickly coming up with a plan, a mop of black hair came into view with the owner holding his wand in one hand and the sphere in the other.

"If I give you this... you'll call off your men, Malfoy?"

"Yes. Now give it here _Potter_."

"Catch."

Although his bone mending skills were non-existent, it did not mean the spells were useless. With a little time and a lot of concentration, Harry could purposely pull a Lockhart. Harry could no longer fault the fraud for removing the bones in his arm since he never got the spell down himself.

With the sphere flying through the air and Malfoy's attention absorbed on it, Harry acted.

"Ossus Emendo2"

The spell struck Lucius in the hip, causing the bone to vanish and Lucius to collapse in a cry of pain. The sphere, with nobody to catch it, broke against the stone floor.

"AAAAARRRRRGGGG..."

". . . approaches. . . . Born to . . ."

"Pettrigrew! Get him!"

". . . mark him as his equal . . ."

The other Death Eater moved towards him.

". . . Lord knows not . . ."

Pettrigrew? Wormtail?

". . . either must die . . ."

Harry gazed downwards. A silver hand.

". . . seventh month dies . . ."

This battle had just turned personal.

"Incarcerous!"

Ropes flew towards his parents' betrayer but the silver hand cut through them with ease.

Wormtail quickly returned with a concussive blast.

Harry was forced to dive aside to avoid the area effect spell. Deciding to up the ante, he fired back a series of confringos. All chest level.

Unfortunately for Harry, Pettigrew's silver hand was magic resistant and he used it to simply bat away the incoming spellfire.

The return volley, an expulso, was met with a quick protego from Harry. The shield held - barely - but was brought down by a dark purple curse that did not originate from Wormtail.

Harry looked around frantically in confusion and spotted the Malfoy scion on the ground but with wand in hand ready to cast again. As Harry took aim to take the weaker target out of the fight, he was forced to duck as another of Pettigrew's curses flew overhead.

He swore. It turned out that the ability to run from a horde of Death Eaters did not translate into taking down more than one in an even duel. Even if it was just one and a half. Realizing that a strategic retreat was in order he dove behind the next pillar before sprinting deeper into that chamber.

Although his skills grew, initiative would always be beyond him so Wormtail turned to Lucius for directions.

"What are you waiting for! Go after him! Make him pay for this humiliation."

That was enough to convince Pettigrew.

* * *

Harry looked at his surroundings carefully. He could not recognize anything but the timeturners, and those would not help in this situation. Thinking back to the battle, he recalled that the silver hand was Pettigrew's biggest advantage. He would have to go around it. But how?

As the traitor stepped into view, Harry let loose with another string of reductor curses. He made a note of learning some better spells if he ever got out of this alive.

Putting Pettigrew on the defense, he watched as the silver hand continued to knock aside spells like bugs. His opponent's erratic return fire was easily dodged and it seemed that multitasking was not yet one of Pettigrew's limited skills. Continuing with the same spell, Harry noticed a misaimed curse forcing Pettigrew to dodge.

'The legs!' Harry realized. Switching to reductos, he aimed them at his enemy's lower legs and forced Pettigrew to put up weak shields as pieces of the floor flew at him. It seemed like defensive magic - and multitasking and decision making - was beyond Pettigrew as his hand had made him complacent.

Harry continued to force Wormtail backwards looking for an opportunity to finish it.

There! A particularly high flying piece of shrapnel that penetrated his shield caused Pettigrew to turn his head to dodge.

'Expelliarmus.' silent.

It snuck through Pettigrew's guard and sent him flying backwards without his wand.

"Incendio"

His robes caught fire.

Then, something wholly unexpected happened. Pettigrew, arcing backwards, hit and cracked the large bell jar at the end of the room. His body began to de-age and re-age in a continuous cycle. His metallic hand had fallen off. A real hand grew back from the stump occasionally but the silver hand remained unattached. Peter could do nothing as his body and mind changed, his priorities altering between capturing Harry and getting fed. The cycle started to speed up as the lights emitted by the jar started to fluctuate wildly.

Harry could only watch, transfixed, as his father's ex-friend was trapped in a vicious cycle while his robes kept on burning. He had not yet noticed that the small crack Pettrigrew's head caused had begun to spread. With a grim sense of satisfaction, Harry stood watching the skin shrivel and flake, watching the flesh charred and crumbled, and enjoying the sound of a scream petering into nothingness.

Suddenly, a loud crack caught his attention and he noticed that the jar no longer seemed stable. Quickly backing away, he was barely able to roll behind a grandfather clock as the jar finally exploded, having been used in such unstable conditions.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. When Harry looked back, that was all that remained of Pettigrew. That, and the claw.

He picked up the appendage as a memento and stuffed it into his pocket.

'Hopefully the Order is here by now' he thought, 'come to protect their precious weapons. Couldn't have been a very good one if it broke so easily.'

Painfully, Harry made his way back towards the entrance. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Malfoy struggling to get up. This Death Eater, this one man had single handedly ousted Dumbledore from Hogwarts. He had nearly killed Harry last year in the graveyard. He could buy his way out of Azkaban again. He had to die.

A silently cast silencio ensured the element of surprise.

Harry took a moment to look around. The room was quiet except for the ticking of the clocks and the occasional sputter of sparks caused by the fight's destruction. Nobody else was here. From the silence, Harry could guess that the other fights were coming to a conclusion as well. Had they won? Had his friends held off the enemy? Did the Order arrive yet? Or had his friends fallen one by one. There was only one way to know and the quicker he finished here, the quicker he could help his friends . . . or get it over with. Looking at his face down target, Harry calmly put a foot on Malfoy's lower back, forcing him to the ground and cast two quick reductors between the shoulder blades. The first blew apart the spine and the second liquefied the lungs. There was no way anybody could live after that. Lucius didn't deserve the honour of dying face up and Harry didn't care to bestow it. Such Gryffindorian concepts held no place in battle. You did what was necessary to stay alive. To win.

A morbid sense of pride filled him as he thought about it. He had just tied up one of the Ministry's loose ends and one of his own. It felt good.

He stood straighter and started walking back.

* * *

Harry cautiously reentered the Hall of Prophecies. The scene that met him was odd yet comforting.

A couple order members were standing guard over the stunned and bound forms of nine Death Eaters.

His friends were all there. He could see Hermione lying on the ground and her chest frequently enough to show a stable condition. Ron was fine physically and Neville looked as though his nose was broken. Neville would also twitch occasionally. Luna and Ginny appeared miraculously unscathed.

Harry would get their stories later. A couple of the adults had finally noticed his entrance.

"Harry! Thank God you're alright!"

The man rushed towards Harry and Harry almost stumbled right there.

Sirius.

Sirius was alright. He had been worrying even though Malfoy had revealed that it was a trick.

Sirius.

Pettigrew. He nearly stumbled again as the implications to his actions finally hit him.

"Sirius, I . . . I killed today."

"It's alright Harry, the Death Eater deserved it. It was either you or them. You did good kid. Do you know who it was?"

"One was Lucius Malfoy. He . . . he would've just bribed his way out of Azkaban again."

Harry took a shuddering breath to steady himself.

How does one tell their godfather that his temporary life as a fugitive just turned long term - if not permanent?

"The other one . . . the other . . . he kept his mask on. I couldn't tell."

One doesn't.

* * *

1: Title of the fic was inspired by "Dulce et Decorum Est" a poem by Wilfred Owen

2: Ossus Emendo: lit. Bone, I approve. According to the HP wiki, 'Brackium Emendo' was the spell Lockhart used in 2nd year in an attempt to fix Harry's arm. I switched the 'Brackium' (forearm) to a general term for bone.

AN: This was my first story so comments and criticisms will be much appreciated.

Thanks to the folks at DLP for helping me along with plot holes and grammar.

Part 2 of the fic will be posted in a couple days.


	2. Sacrifice

part 2/2.

**Pro Potter Mori:**_ Sacrifice_

The rest of the afternoon had passed in a blur and Harry could see the sun setting outside the window of the Headmaster's office. It would have been a breathtaking scene if Harry had the presence of mind to pay attention to it. Instead, his thoughts were focused on both his, and his friends', actions that afternoon.

Tonks and Kingsley had been called back, after fruitlessly searching for him in all the wrong places. Apparently, they thought Harry had gone towards the Space, Thought, or even Death chambers. It would have made sense, sticking together, but that wasn't really his style. Not anymore.

The Order members had indeed come to the students' rescue. They had found Neville standing his ground, defending Hermione, against crucios from Bellatrix Lestrange who was just toying with him. He and Hermione had managed to take down their foes several times, only to have them revived by the other Death Eaters. Harry made a mental note to teach these two some better spells. In their hands, it might be worth something.

After Luna realized that she could not overpower her pursuers, she led them on a merry chase through several sections of the department as though she had intrinsic knowledge of the entire facility. Luna, in her usual way, insisted that she had never before set foot there in her life, and any thoughts to the contrary were "just plain crazy". She had been doing fine until Ginny's pursuers had decided to switch targets. At that point, the Death Eaters had spread out and cornered her. Incidentally, she had gotten herself cornered near a concealed Master Auror, and Moody was easily able to pick off the lackeys.

Harry snorted at the memory. When Moody had complimented her on her choice of position and her spatial awareness, she replied that "whimsical creature A" had displayed "imaginary behaviour B" resulting in the coincidence. This produced a confused auror who decided that he was better off not knowing.

Harry's mood turned sour however, as his thoughts moved on to the two Weasleys who had tagged along.

Ginny had taken the first alcove she could find and hid herself behind it, leaving Luna with two extra tails. 'What was she thinking, coming along?' Harry wondered. She had only made the situation worse.

Nobody could tell him what happened to Ron. Remus and Sirius had found him and his pursuers covered in some liquid with tentacle-brains hanging from them. So far, Ron had yet to do anything other than giggle and say things like "cerebell-brain" or "primary touchy-feely place" but Dumbledore assured him his friend would be fine. Harry grimaced in disdain; Ron had probably gotten smarter thanks to the ordeal.

Dumbledore. Dumbledore finally entered the Department of Mysteries after everything had been resolved, late as usual. This time though, he had a legitimate excuse. A duel with Voldemort.

To Harry, that was a fairly good reason. Personal experience and all that.

As his thoughts dwelt more and more on the events of the day, he started to screen out the details, leaving only the main points. Now his concentration was all shot to hell as image after image flashed through his mind. One image in particular kept returning to the forefront. It weighed as heavily on his guilt as it did in his pocket.

How could he tell the man that his only chance at freedom (short of Voldemort's death) had been burnt to the ground, quite literally, by his godson? Harry would have to make it up to him somehow.

By the time Dumbledore finally returned to the office, Harry's mind was blank. The captured Death Eaters were inconsequential, as was Fudge's admittance to seeing Voldemort in the Atrium. He also couldn't care less about the prophecy or its implications.

Love for his friends? He doubted it. After what he heard of his friends' performances, he decided that there would be a culling of the weak. Some would be cut loose. Others like Neville had earned his . . . respect? No, the closest term would be grudging acknowledgement. Definitely nowhere near love.

* * *

"Harry? Harry, are you in there? Harry, can I come in?"

Little Ginny Weasley had been hounding him for weeks now, ever since he had arrived at the Burrow. At first she was just concerned about his seemingly antisocial moods.

Regrettably, he had told his friends about the prophecy, at least the known lines of it. On some level they deserved to know, but really he was just covering up his more pressing issue. Since that was all anyone was told, that was what Ginny had to go off of. She had tried to baby him and assure him that she would always be there. 'Like that would be much help' he frowned.

Her motivations and attempts started changing about a week ago. Molly had convinced her that now was a good time to snag "the boy who lived".

'If only she hadn't been going about it with all of Buckbeak's patience but none of Buckbeak's dignity' he thought. If Harry Potter wanted a quick lay, Harry Potter could get a quick lay. One who did not look like his mother.

Still, he would keep her close. Like a friend. She was a friend right? She was a Weasley . . . he liked Weasley's, didn't he? After all, they were almost family. But so was Sirius – even more so. Yes, she was a friend. And any friend of Harry Potter's would have to be a useful one.

"Ginny? That you? Come on in."

As she entered the room Harry had commandeered, she saw what Fred and George's old room had become. Nothing had changed, really. The twins would use their room as the lab for their experiments. There would always be potions brewing and notes strewn all over the place. An organized mess. Under Harry's usage, the room kept all the defining characteristics. It was still a little messy and was still being used for potions and spellwork.

Nobody could really put their finger on what had changed, but they all agreed something had. What was once a room full of life now exuded emptiness. It came from the way Harry kept the curtains and windows closed, leaving the dark and stuffy atmosphere that he was used to at Privet Drive. It was also the lack of sound coming from the room. Whereas Fred and George created daily explosions followed by laughter, Harry kept to himself. While he was not totally silent, people walking past the room would hear constant motion and muttered words that were just quiet enough to not be made out.

The mood of the room gave Ginny chills, despite the summer heat, and it made her fidget in nervousness.

Inside, Harry was amused at her squeamishness. It looked like she was stalling for time by looking around the room. He knew she could not see much in the dimness and most of the important things were placed in the murky corners. He stopped his idle musings when it looked like Ginny was about to blurt out everything on her mind. He was right.

"Harry? What are you doing in here? Eww, are those leeches? And lacewing flies? Merlin, Harry what are you up to? It looks like you're boiling mud in that cauldron" she finished with a nervous giggle. "Look Harry, I wanted to talk to you. You've been acting weird ever since you got here about a month ago. Mum asked me to see if you're alright."

Her comment went ignored for the most part. Harry had a plan to follow.

"Ah Ginny, don't worry about it, its nothing. You're just the girl I wanted to see though" he said as he walked towards his work table at the side of the room.

Really, Harry did not blame the Weasley matriarch's advice for Ginny. It was her only shot at finding her daughter a halfway decent husband. Too bad the little one just could _not_ pull her own weight.

One sole comment from Harry lit up her face in a pretty blush. At least, it would have been a pretty blush on anyone else. She clasped her hands in front of her hips, tried to jut her chest outwards by sucking in her breath, and started fluttering her eyelashes. She looked like a constipated hooker with an eye infection.

"What did you need me for, Harry?"

"I need a small favour, can you do that for me?"

"You know I would do anything for you, Haarrrry"

She tried to draw out the name in a purr. The hooker now had a lisp.

"Right. Well, I needed to test out this potion for a trial run. Can you tell me how it is?"

As he was talking, Harry had his back turned to her. She could not see what he was doing but when he turned around again, she was presented with a drab gray potion in a test tube.

"What is this?"

"You know, I'm not sure yet. I'm experimenting with the theories presented in this potions text" he lied. "Tell me what you experience. The effects shouldn't last for more than an hour."

Anybody else would have questioned the potion. Would have questioned Harry's skill. Would have looked over the research and the process. That was why it had to be Ginny. That, and almost everyone else was actually useful in a fight.

"You sound like you're turning into Hermione, Harry" she tried to joke while looking warily at the potion. Any reservations were lost when she saw the patronizing smile on Harry's face. She gulped it down with the stereotyped rashness and bullheadedness of a Gryffindor. Her features started to change immediately.

The final ingredient had been a bit of a challenge. Dobby had really pulled through for him. In the end, no man could stay in an animagus transformation for over a decade. For a house elf, with no magic restrictions in the summer, finding a single brown hair in a family of redheads was easy.

Ginny's form started to grow, tearing at her clothes. Her ginger hair shortened into a dull brown and her body seemed to almost double in weight. The result was a nondescript, middle-aged man in tattered rags.

"Hmm, I see the polyjuice worked. Pity, you have an extra hand. The hair must've been more than a year old" he mused. He wondered if that would affect the potion's quality. Better not take any risks and finish this quickly.

"Polyjuice? Harry what are you talking about? Who did you turn me into?"

"You said you would do anything for me, Ginny. I need to win this war. It's my purpose. My destiny. To do that, I need able bodies. You understand, don't you?"

"Harry, doesn't polyjuice only last an hour? How will this work?"

"I see you don't understand, not yet" he sighed. "Ginny, Sirius is a valuable asset to _my_ war. But he can't go out unless he's innocent, meaning after we've caught Wormtail."

"Harry, you're not making any sense. What's that got to . . ."

"Wormtail died in the last battle, Ginny. I killed him. His body is gone. Sirius . . . he's a fighter, he's an asset, but more than that, he's family. My family. You on the other hand, are a liability. I can't have you at my back, Ginny."

As he talked, he picked up the long knife he used for cutting ingredients, before slowly moving towards Ginny. Backing her away from the door, he made his move.

The knife flashed as he struck. A trail of crimson in its wake. The magically sharpened blade cut through flesh and bone without a problem. Ginny could only look down and gape in horror as her wrist now ended in a stump. Before she could make a noise, Harry had knocked her over and taken a pillow to her face. He kept her pinned with the full weight of his body on her chest as he explained.

"You're right of course. Polyjuice does only last for one hour. There is an exception though. Mrs. Crouch. You remember the fake Moody don't you? His father helped him escape Azkaban by having his ailing mother take his place. She died in there, taking a dose every hour. The Crouch family knew something about polyjuice however, they knew that at death the change remains permanent. That's why when she was buried, everyone thought they buried Crouch Jr."

As he spoke, the asphyxiating body below him struggled less and less.

"When the others come up here, they'll find that 'Scabbers' returned home but got caught. Sadly, I was too late to stop him from kidnapping poor Ginevra Weasley, but I managed to kill him without magic. I even have the silver hand to prove it. They'll applaud the mourning hero and the public will rally behind me, supporting me in my fight. More importantly, Fudge will have Sirius declared innocent to save his political career. You're just collateral damage."

With that said, the knife plunged down several times.

Love? No, not love. Maybe sacrifice - not his own, of course - but maybe not. Certainly not love though.

* * *

AN:

And that's that. Sorry for the wait. I know I said a couple days but I forgot I had two term papers due that week.

Honestly, I had a bit of trouble keeping it in 3rd person for the second part. I found myself talking about Harry in the first person. Guess I really don't like Ginny eh?

Always been fascinated by the idea that polyjuice is permanent if the drinker dies before the hour is up.

I originally wanted Harry to put a water insoluble poison into the test tube with the potion but I had a bitch of a time looking for a poison that wouldn't affect a potion (I'm guessing that most potions are water based) and would kill the ingester in under an hour.


End file.
